Cigar angle with Dino Bravo

[sniperniles]

Mr. Eadie,

I've never seen this angle, yet heard a little about it.

Would you be so kind into filling me into this angle, and how it came out at first and then the war with Dino.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Serge

[Masked Superstar]

Serge,

It would take too much time to try to explain the entire set up. Briefly, I had been in Mid Atlantic for sometime. During my stay we came up with a signature symbol to celebrate each Superstar victory. At the end of each match Boris(my manager at ringside) would light up a big cigar. That went on for many many months.(at least 6 or more)

During a match with Mighty Igor, Boris lite the cigar. He had his back to the ring and was facing and taunting the crowd. I had just been grabbed by Igor in his famous brear hug submission finish. Boris turns to the ring, see my perdicerment, jumps up as if to help but is stopped on the ring apron by the referee. The only way out( I FELT) was to grab the lighted cigar and burn his eye with the cigar. As you could imagine it was a very heated response from the fans in suport of their favorite being injured in suach a manner. Well the angle was very hot. I had many many matches all around the area with Igor and also with his many tag partners for some time (over the next year, plus)

Some years later I did the same deal In Japan against Inoki. Dino was on that tour. He saw the reaction and asked that I come into Montreal and go up against him. I did and we had a series of matches over the next fews years.

It was well received all three times.

As to the matches they went well.

Hope that helps,

Superstar

[Baltimore Jack]

Here are excerpts from Superstar's interview with the Mid-Atlantic Gateway a few years back:

M-A Gateway: You had almost a year long program with Igor in 1977. People still remember the angle where Malenko’s cigar was stuck into Igor’s eye.

Superstar: That angle was Boris Malenko’s idea. Boris actually hated cigarettes, and he couldn’t smoke…he was a health fanatic. But Boris wanted to do something to set us apart from the other guys. You know, Jimmy Hart and all these other managers…they always wanted to get involved. Boris never got involved. When Boris stood up, something big was going to happen and the people knew that. That was his psychology. He knew that if you were jumping around all the time, you were taking away from the action in the ring. So, Boris came up with the thing where every time I would have a victory, he would stand up on the apron and light this big cigar…my victory cigar. And it caught on. As soon as I put the cobra on, Boris would get up and light that cigar. We programmed that and programmed that. And of course, we expanded that to where we used the cigar on Igor.

M-A Gateway: You certainly got a lot of mileage out of that cigar angle with Igor.

Superstar: Antonio Inoki heard about it in Japan. I used to go back and forth to Japan all the time, so I did the same angle with Inoki in Japan. It was so hot over there, you wouldn’t believe it. I did it to him during the first week of an eight-week tour over there. I was supposed to finish the tour in the Tokyo Dome, but I had to go home because of death threats. It was unreal. That one angle gave me thirteen years of work! (everyone laughs) It was so good, that when I did it Dino Bravo was on the tour with me, and Dino remembered it. About ten years later, Dino had his own territory in Montreal…so what do you think we do? I spent two more years with Dino off of that same angle. So that one cigar, that investment of that $1.50 cigar, was real, real good to me.

M-A Gateway: Looking back on the cigar angle over here, and your dealings with Igor generally, do you think it’s fair to say that Igor had a strange character, particularly for that time period? His character seemed totally different from everybody else’s.

Superstar: I’ll put it this way…Igor lived his gimmick. He was a real nice guy, but he was a businessman. And he was a very, very wealthy man. I remember him buying eighteen acres of property in the area of North Hollywood…every time he got a paycheck he would send money out there. But he was really a nice guy. He was Mr. Michigan a couple of times…a strong, strong guy.


For the complete interview, visit the Mid-Atlantic Gateway interviews section.

[Masked Superstar]

Dick,

Good to know that if my Partimers (memory loss) kicks into high gear I can rely on your good interview skills.

Thanks.

Hope to see you soon and want to hear of your recent Florida trip to see our friend.

Superstar